Which was it?

Maybe because of some adrenalin and hope to get the separately booked flight. Or because of a big price saving or unexpected service.

The connection could be also with more than 24 hours layover until flying to the final destination.

If you've never booked a self-transfer flight, which one of somebody else or which one seen in the flight search did you like?

I don’t get it, why complicate air travel more than it is.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

I don’t get it, why complicate air travel more than it is.

To save money of course, a self-connection can sometimes be considerably cheaper than a through-ticket.

Of course the best self-hubbing connections are those where you can stay airside, meaning you should be able to check-in online for your second flight. If you have to go landside to check-in at the airport that's an inconvenience. Also some airports have departures and arrivals strictly separated while others have them mixed, obviously those who have it mixed are better for self-connections.

Outside of pandemics it can be pretty easy.

The benefits can include:

- A way better price
- Time to experience an additional country or city in between, cost-neutral
- shorter leg flying times with the possibility to stretch your legs outside a plane
- avoiding a night flight if not desired or generally a better schedule
- reaching the destination faster
- being able to fly this connection where there is no other way to do it

This thread asks for example routes

My favorite self-hubbing connection is still from Europe to Thailand.

From Eastern or South Eastern Europe you may fly directly to the UAE. From European countries more in the west there are more than 25 airports to self-connect to the UAE. May it be via Alexandria, Greek Islands, Kutaisi, Budapest, Tel-Aviv or Larnaca.

Of course it's worth to stay a night in the UAE, especially in Dubai between late autumn and early spring.

From the UAE there are protected one-stop flights to Bangkok. Or people can fly from Sharjah, Dubai or Abu Dhabi to India and experience the country in between. The e-visa is just 10-25 USD.

So in the end the whole flight connection from Europe to Thailand can be from 150-200€ one-way.

I already did it and it was a nice experience.

So far I have self-connected at the following airports:

- Barcelona
- Copenhagen
- London Stansted
- Milan Malpensa
- Oslo Gardermoen
- Stockholm Arlanda

All of them have their pros and cons, I don't really have a favorite. It also depends on which airlines I'm flying, some airports can be very convenient on one airline and very inconvenient on another.

Only did it Santiago and had plenty of time so went well, but definitely had to go to counter and recheck bags and go back through security. Was LAN and then onward on United.

What is self-connecting???

AntonioMartin wrote:

What is self-connecting???

It's a one-stop flight on two different tickets.

For example let's say I want to get from Amsterdam to San Francisco for cheap. FrenchBee has a cheap flight from Paris Orly to San Francisco but Paris is not Amsterdam. FrenchBee does not offer Amsterdam so you would say those flights from Paris are not interesting for me. However Transavia does fly Amsterdam to Paris Orly, so I end up booking two tickets. One with Transavia Amsterdam - Paris Orly and one with FrenchBee Paris Orly - San Francisco.

As far as Transavia is concerned, I'm only flying to Paris Orly. What I do after that is of no concern to them. As far as FrenchBee is concerned I only fly from Paris Orly, how I get there is my problem. I connect the two of them together and make a single one-stop trip out of them. That's why it's called a self-transfer, you basically transfer yourself from one flight to the next while those flights are completely independent from each other.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

I don’t get it, why complicate air travel more than it is.

At the end of medical school I went to Italy with a few friends on a cliché shoestring backpacking trip -- we had a blast. I was living in Chicago at the time. Due to my credit card I had to use award miles with Alaska Airlines, and for whatever reason the availability out of Chicago was nil for the days I needed to travel unless I flew BA, which had very high fees. I booked out of Boston on Air France (at they time they were still affiliated with AS), and self-connected on Southwest from MDW. One extra connection but I saved a lot of the money I didn't have at the time as opposed to flying BA. So that's why. Once in Italy I think my total expenses were about the difference in the airfare over flying BA.

Back in the mid-90's, I built an itinerary for my mother and myself on DL & KW (TPA-FLL-SJU) that proved to be significantly cheaper than the offerings for AA & DL (AA nonstop TPA-SJU or TPA-MIA-SJU, DL TPA-MCO-SJU). This would have been right around the time WN started service to TPA, so I imagine DL was very competitive with the fares on TPA-FLL which was one of the first WN routes. DL also had an interline with KW so bags were transferred, but you did have to switch terminals and exit/re-clear security at FLL where KW was located in then- 1980's build Terminal 4, Concourse H.

Most of the self-connects I have scheduled was to fly on a specific airline (not available at my home airport at the time STL), or a specific airplane type, or in a specific seat (upper deck on a 747). Sometimes the costs are less doing it this way, but as long as doing it the self-connect way isn't significantly more expensive, I will do it that way.

As long as I leave plenty of time between flights, (3-4 hours depending on the airline/airport), everything has been fine,. I have had more problems with connections built by the airlines.

So far I have only self-connected through Chicago O'Hare and Minneapolis, so I don't have much to compare against. My favorite one probably was the one self-connecting to the KLM flights, since I was sitting in the upper deck of a 747 one way and seat 1A on the return..

The ones I have done are (with UA or AA STL-ORD)
KL ORD-AMS-ORD
LH MUC-ORD
LX ORD-ZRH-ORD
SK CPH-ORD

MSP -
WN STL-MSP; FI MSP-KEF
WN STL-MSP; SY MSP-SEA

I did have one "self" connect in Newark, but I took United STL-EWR and LH EWR-FRA on separate tickets, so I was able to have my bag checked through STL-EWR-FRA.

Why lie; some of us go with a connecting flight to get on a certain type, and yes even if it’s just slightly more expensive . I say slightly.

Back in the 90s, one had quite a few self-connect options at Chicago's Midway Airport (MDW). Besides being a hub for ATA, Chicago Express (which later became ATA Connection), Southwest, for Midway / Metrolink, many other LCCs flew there, such as Airtran, ATA, Frontier, Kiwi International, Markair, Ozark (the reboot that flew FD-328 jets) and Vanguard. In addition, legacy carriers Northwest and Continental served MDW and charged fares competitive with the LCCs. I took several trips self-connection on various carriers through MDW just to avoid the ninety-day-advance-purchase-stay-over-Saturday-night nonrefundable fares charged by the legacies. It took some research, some time and some luck, but it didn't take a whole lot of money to go nearly anywhere in the USA's Lower 48 if one was willing to self-connect through Midway!

airlinenavigato wrote:

Which was it?

Maybe because of some adrenalin and hope to get the separately booked flight. Or because of a big price saving or unexpected service.

The connection could be also with more than 24 hours layover until flying to the final destination.

If you've never booked a self-transfer flight, which one of somebody else or which one seen in the flight search did you like?

What are yours ?
And why ?

phatfarmlines wrote:

Back in the mid-90's, I built an itinerary for my mother and myself on DL & KW (TPA-FLL-SJU) that proved to be significantly cheaper than the offerings for AA & DL (AA nonstop TPA-SJU or TPA-MIA-SJU, DL TPA-MCO-SJU). This would have been right around the time WN started service to TPA, so I imagine DL was very competitive with the fares on TPA-FLL which was one of the first WN routes. DL also had an interline with KW so bags were transferred, but you did have to switch terminals and exit/re-clear security at FLL where KW was located in then- 1980's build Terminal 4, Concourse H.

Who is KW?

I did a lot of self connections, I don't even remember all of them.

HAM-CPH(SK)/CPH-KEF(FI) and back
HAM-LHR(BA)/LHR-KEF(FI) and back
KEF-LGW(BA)/LGW-HAM(4U)
HAM-STN(LH)/STN-DUB(FR) and back
HAM-CPH(SK)/CPH-SFJ(GL)
UAK-KEF(NY)/KEF-HAM(FI)
HAM-OSL(4U)/OSL-LRY(DY)
LRY-OSL(SK)/OSL-HAM(4U)
HAM-OSL(4U)/OSL-TOS(SK)
BDU-OSL(DY)/OSL-HAM(4U)
HAM-OSL(4U)/OSL-KKN(DY)
EVE-OSL(SK)/OSL-HAM(4U)
MLO-ATH(OA)/ATH-FRA(LH)
DXB-PER(EK)/PER-AYQ(QF)
ZQN-CHC(NZ)/CHC-SYD-DXB(EK)
MVD-GRU(PU)/GRU-FRA(LH)
IGU-GRU(JJ)/GRU-ZRH(LX)
HAM-TFS(DE)/TFN-VDE(PM)
VDE-LPA(NT)/LPA-HAM(DE)
PIX-TER(S4)/TER-LIS(TP)

All those (and maybe some more) had max 1 night in between, many of them just 2-5h.

My favourite was obviously OSL, when there were an early morning and a late evening flight HAM-OSL-HAM by Germanwings, that conveniently connected to many places in northern Norway. But that ended long before Covid.


Gruß, masi1157

I did Southwest SDF-LAS 4 hour layover and flew Hawaiin LAS-HNL.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I love self-connecting. It’s a great way to save money and really convenient if you travel light.

HNL: Arriving on NZ overnight from AKL at 06:00, departing on AA to LAX overnight at 23:30. And you depart from AKL, land and depart from HNL on the ‘same day’. And spend most of the day napping on Waikiki Beach.

OOL: Arriving on Air Asia X in the morning from KUL, departing on Jetstar to AKL the next afternoon.

DMK: A handful of self-connects that would normally be protected on Air Asia (FD), but because of using the ASEAN pass had to book every flight segment individually. HAN-DMK-CNX (10 hour, overnight), CEI-DMK-HKT (2 hour), HKT-DMK-UTH (90 mins), VTE-DMK-REP (overnight).

CPH: Back when Norwegian was crossing the pond, the cheapest fly-back city to SEA was CPH, connecting at LGW. We’ve self-connected there twice, once from SXF (BER) on EasyJet (18 hours) and from PRG on Czech Airways (22 hours) to catch our super cheap return flight home.

And the stupidest one, due to a storm we had to bail our NZ South Island road tour before returning to CHC, so we dropped the rental in Picton and took the ferry over to WLG. Our flight the next day was CHC-WLG-AKL and we couldn’t bail on the first segment without a bunch of fees, so we booked a Jetstar flight early that morning WLG-CHC just to turn around in 45 mins and fly right back to WLG.

eastafspot wrote:

What are yours ?
And why ?

I already wrote about a route with multiple self-transfers under and over 24 hours.

If it's only connecting via one airport, then my favorite is Western Europe <> UAE.

Because first of the prices: currently it's from around 40€.



This connection is via Catania, so there is no need to check the entry regulations of the country where the connecting airport is.

https://www.kiwi.com/ee/search/results/ ... ber=1~true

There are over 25 airports to make the self-transfer between Europe and the UAE. So there should be something for everybody regarding flight schedule, min. or max. layover time or chosing a suitable self-hubbing airport.

The UAE are known to be a luxury paradise. It's nice to fly there very affordably.

johns624 wrote:

phatfarmlines wrote:

Back in the mid-90's, I built an itinerary for my mother and myself on DL & KW (TPA-FLL-SJU) that proved to be significantly cheaper than the offerings for AA & DL (AA nonstop TPA-SJU or TPA-MIA-SJU, DL TPA-MCO-SJU). This would have been right around the time WN started service to TPA, so I imagine DL was very competitive with the fares on TPA-FLL which was one of the first WN routes. DL also had an interline with KW so bags were transferred, but you did have to switch terminals and exit/re-clear security at FLL where KW was located in then- 1980's build Terminal 4, Concourse H.

Who is KW?

KW was Carnival Air Lines. FLL-SJU we flew was on the AB3, and the return SJU-FLL was on the 732, which ended up making a flag stop in BQN to pick up more passengers.

SkyVoice wrote:

Back in the 90s, one had quite a few self-connect options at Chicago's Midway Airport (MDW). Besides being a hub for ATA, Chicago Express (which later became ATA Connection), Southwest, for Midway / Metrolink, many other LCCs flew there, such as Airtran, ATA, Frontier, Kiwi International, Markair, Ozark (the reboot that flew FD-328 jets) and Vanguard. In addition, legacy carriers Northwest and Continental served MDW and charged fares competitive with the LCCs. I took several trips self-connection on various carriers through MDW just to avoid the ninety-day-advance-purchase-stay-over-Saturday-night nonrefundable fares charged by the legacies. It took some research, some time and some luck, but it didn't take a whole lot of money to go nearly anywhere in the USA's Lower 48 if one was willing to self-connect through Midway!

This was really where the value of travel agents came in. Without widespread internet usage with limited travel sites during those days, they were able to build itineraries from far-out ways that was significantly cheaper through the traditional distribution systems. You'll be hard-pressed to try to build such itineraries today since the legacy fares are so much cheaper today (inflation-adjusted) than the 90's.

As the sign in my gun dealer says, “Life is Short, Write the Check”. Or, my motto, “It’s Only Money”; which used to really pizz off our finance manager in the flight department. I’d say it, they’d say, “yeah, but, but, but”; then the order would to fly the trip. See, “it’s only money”

We do have a scheduled who’s a miracle worker at this self-directed travel. He’s done 6-leg trips Europe and not repeated an airline on the whole itinerary. Well done.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

AntonioMartin wrote:

What is self-connecting???

It's a one-stop flight on two different tickets.

For example let's say I want to get from Amsterdam to San Francisco for cheap. FrenchBee has a cheap flight from Paris Orly to San Francisco but Paris is not Amsterdam. FrenchBee does not offer Amsterdam so you would say those flights from Paris are not interesting for me. However Transavia does fly Amsterdam to Paris Orly, so I end up booking two tickets. One with Transavia Amsterdam - Paris Orly and one with FrenchBee Paris Orly - San Francisco.

As far as Transavia is concerned, I'm only flying to Paris Orly. What I do after that is of no concern to them. As far as FrenchBee is concerned I only fly from Paris Orly, how I get there is my problem. I connect the two of them together and make a single one-stop trip out of them. That's why it's called a self-transfer, you basically transfer yourself from one flight to the next while those flights are completely independent from each other.

Ohh thanks....AFAIK, when I was a kid, travel agents did that for you all the time. They'd just tell you "you have to change airlines on your connection airport". He he

AntonioMartin wrote:

Ohh thanks....AFAIK, when I was a kid, travel agents did that for you all the time. They'd just tell you "you have to change airlines on your connection airport". He he

Yeah, travel agents really are a thing of the past.

AntonioMartin wrote:

Ohh thanks....AFAIK, when I was a kid, travel agents did that for you all the time. They'd just tell you "you have to change airlines on your connection airport". He he

Changing airlines may have been more common those days. But still you would have had them on one ticket and your bags would be checked through. But here we are talking about checking your bags in again at the connecting airport. The boarding would nowadays probably be electronic anyway. Otherwise you would also have to get the boarding pass there.


Gruß, masi1157

As a kid I flew NW/US DTW-BOS-BDA and NW/EI DTW-BOS-SNN. Both of these were on the same reservation though. I also flew NW/UA DTW-LAX-OGG on two separate reservations. For my honeymoon I flew UA/TN ORD-LAX-PPT on two separate reservations.

I have self-connected more times than I could possibly remember - we're probably talking 200+ times.

Why, well often because it isn't possible to book a single itinerary when flying on two different LCCs, sometimes because it was cheaper and other times because I wanted to fly on another airline I hadn't been on before.

Examples:

MAH-BCN-BRS, separate tickets with Vueling and easyJet because it couldn't be booked on a single itinerary and no direct flight is available off season.
LGW-SOF-DWC, separate tickets with easyJet and Wizzair, because it saved me around £200 over a direct flight
NVI-TAS-VKO-BGO-STN, separate tickets with Uzbekistan Airlines, UTair, Pobeda and Ryanair, because it saved a small fortune and took in some different airlines.

Being poor European I have done multiple self connections in usual Ryanair "hubs", like BVA, CRL, BGY and also others. Because it's cheap.

I wouldn't self-hub on the same day. I was going to have my in laws fly into the US on an open jaw itenerary in 2020 flying from eastern Europe to Texas via TK and fly back to Europe on TK from JFK after flying to LGA on WN to see friends in NYC for a few days. Of course that didn't work out so well due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still I like the idea of decoupling the airline tickets to and from the US from the travel inside the US. A missed flight doesn't risk cancellation of the international return flight. Still I wouldn't schedule the two flights for the same day. WN is great for flying around the US for self-connections. They have the same baggage limits as TK so it's pretty useful for VFR travel with lots of luggage.

The ones I have done are EWR-DTW-AMS, IAD-DTW-AMS and EWR-FRA-AMS.
The first time to get a DC-9.
The second one to do some spotting at DTW.
The third to get a 747.

Best was the first, because DC-9s are cool.

petertenthije wrote:

The ones I have done are EWR-DTW-AMS, IAD-DTW-AMS and EWR-FRA-AMS.
The first time to get a DC-9.
The second one to do some spotting at DTW.
The third to get a 747.

Best was the first, because DC-9s are cool.

Indeed..compared to a 727, very smooth flying (I flew both types)

Perhaps my favourite was to catch an unexpected MD87. I already had a self hubbing booking to go from DUB-ARN via SAS and then ARN-OAK on Norwegian. When I heard that DAT's MD87 would be operating HEL-ARN on behalf of SAS the same day I was to be transiting ARN, I knew I had to catch it. I changed my DUB-ARN to HEL-ARN which left getting to HEL. There were no flight's from DUB that would arrive early enough to catch it nor were there any that would fit my schedule leaving the previous day that would allow me to overnight in HEL. I ended up booking Ryanair DUB-RIX arriving late in the evening, overnighting near the airport, then airBaltic first thing in the morning to HEL to wait for my DAT mad dog to arrive and take me to ARN where I'd finally catch the 787 to OAK. For a total of DUB-RIX-HEL-ARN-OAK.

Perhaps the most grueling was transiting IKA after arriving from KUL on the 747SP. It's nice of them to provide a tiny private area with recliners for the rare non-interline transit pax, but spending about 7 hours there unable to sleep, no means of connecting to internet/messaging, no food, and a very bad book was a little uncomfortable. It was KUL-IKA on IR then IKA-ATH-BRU on Aegean which was very pleasant (and was the cheapest out of IKA within a reasonable connection time) and finally BRU-DUB on Ryanair. I'd only flown DUB-LHR-KUL one day prior, making for a rather tiring trip all around.

The self-hub connections that I find most interesting are those I sent my wife to do herself Originally planned for her to fly SFO-SAN (to her apartment for a night) then train+bus to LAX and Norwegian to LGW (whilst I flew separately to LHR). Instead we stayed in SFO an extra day and were able to re-arrange flights free due to California wildfires at the time. So I booked her on SFO-LAX-SAN with the intention to drop the last leg and leaving less than 90 minutes to make the UA to DY connection in LAX. The UA E175 arrived at Terminal 8 which meant she had a long walk to TBIT and would need to check in at the gate since it would be too late to go out and attempt check in at the counter. I gave her a walkthrough in advance with some LAX photos and explanation of the tunnel system. Most importantly was that she never mistakenly leave the secure area as she'd be unable to get back inside. Arrived at the gate for Norwegian after some 30 minutes of walking and made the flight without issue.

The biggest nail biter was helping her fly to China during the height of the pandemic in the USA when it was nearly impossible to get seats to anywhere in China. Ended up with a double self-connect KE LAX-ICN to Jeju Air ICN-KIX and Juneyao KIX-PVG. Took a bit of fighting to get KE to accept her especially as Jeju had only just begun temporarily arriving at the same terminal as Juneyao in KIX, making the connection possible. Jeju was delayed out of ICN making the connection in KIX very very tight. In the end, all went ok.